BMWs need to know when you replace the battery, battery capacity and battery type must be registered! YOU DO NEED TO REGISTER battery replacements on BMWs with an IBS (Intelligent Battery Sensor).

Why register the battery replacement?

After installing a new battery, the service function ‘Register battery replacement’ must be run. The registration of the battery replacement is required to inform the power management (BMW Diagnostic Scanner in engine electronics and intelligent battery sensor) that a new battery was installed in the vehicle. If the battery replacement is not registered, the power management will not function properly and can lead to functions being limited by individual electrical consumers being switched off or having their power consumption reduced. Power management will charge the new battery as if it’s the old worn out battery, causing premature failure of the replacement battery.

Important! If the new battery is not registered, incorrect readings may appear in the display of the on-board computer due to old data in the power management system (check control message ”Recharge battery” appears even though the battery is new).

A service function informs the power management in the Digital Engine Electronics (DME) or the Digital Diesel Electronics (DDE) of a battery replacement. The following operations are performed:

Replacing battery with exact same type – (Simple registration)
Replacing battery with same type but different capacity – (Registration/Conversion)
Replacing battery with different type – (Programming/Conversion/Registration)
Updating software of complete battery management system

Changes to the charging profile also affects how the Start/Stop system works for vehicles with EfficientDynamics

Car 1:

You’re renewing the battery with identical replacement. You register replacement to let the car know that the battery is new and the charging profile is adjusted accordingly. If you don’t the vehicle will charge for an old battery and cause premature failure.

Car 2:

You fit an AGM in place of a Standard LA battery (or vice versa). If you don’t register the replacement then it will toast the new battery for similar reasons to Car 1 but even worse as the charging profile will be for the incorrect type battery and cause even faster battery failure. In this case you MUST use a ‘conversion’ to change the battery type. Then, register a replacement.

BMW Register battery replacement

Notice! Determination of state of charge after a battery replacement

After a battery replacement, the vehicle must be left standing for at least 3 hours with its new battery. It is not possible to establish with any reliability the state of charge of the new battery until that time. Possible Check Control messages about total discharge of the battery are then no longer displayed.

BMW battery state of charge

Notes for disconnecting and connecting battery

The scope of application of some systems may be restricted after a power supply interruption. Likewise, individual settings may be lost.

Settings or activations must be carried out, depending on the equipment specification. For example:

.Vehicles with automatic engine start‐stop function (MSA): MSA function is active only after learning period (vehicle must not be woken for a period of approx. 6 hours

Skipping the battery registration process can dramatically shorten the life of a battery in these vehicles, be it an AGM or a conventional battery. Several issues can cause premature battery failure, see post on Energy Diagnosis, but on a late model BMW, skipping battery registration can be one of them.

Many BMW ICOM users will no doubt have encountered a situation where they have had Rheingold ISTA/D running successfully on their computers, only to later encounter the situation where they can no longer access the software and get a license expired message. The majority of suggestions to resolve this situation found on the internet suggest that users adjust the bios setting of their machines to a date before the original license expiry date but as the result of an enquiry from another user, I decided to post my resolution of this problem (which has been tested and found to work on machines running both Windows 10 and XP Operating systems):-

1. Run Regedit
2. Open HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
3. left click SOFTWARE
4. left click BMWGROUP
5. left click ISPI
6. left click Rheingold
7. on the right hand panel of the screen, left click Licence and choose Modify
8. Be careful to modify only the entries on this line as described…use the left arrow key to scroll along the line to a date format entry, which is followed by the words Package Expire and change the date to 2072-09-20

9. After you have changed the package expiration date, continue to use the left arrow key to scroll further back along the line until you find another date format entry, which is followed by the word Expiration (this date will be identical to the original entry that you altered during the last step) – change this date to 2072-09-20

10.When you have completed the above changes, collapse the registry editor back to show only the HKEY menus, then close the registry editor and restart your computer.

11. CONGRATULATIONS, your Rheingold licence is now current until 2072-09-20. Note when editing the expiration date for ISTA, you should maintain the original date format (usually YYYY MM DD) – as some packages use an BMW ICOM A2 and some use a hypenated seperator for date entry values.

If you can’t find it at that registry entry, try here-
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\BMWGroup\ISPI\Rheingold